Apart in a Pair Tree

Pair programming is important because it fosters communication about code and improves code quality early in the lifecycle sometimes even faster than TDD. Remote pair programming is harder to accomplish, but is necessary as workplaces become composed of more distance workers. Learn why you should pair remotely and how to do it successfully through this fun story of my journey from cubicle land to productive remote pair guru.

Not so long ago, I worked in a shop where the evil cubicle overlords sought domination by dividing the developer minions into single person teams. The land was divided into cubicle egg crates that removed any communication other than that which happened in hours long meetings. The developers were isolated and cut off from the world. They used headphones to block out any attempts at communication. Terms like "Advancement of craft" and "Pursuit of exciting new languages" were never spoken.

As a lone developer, seated in a corner cubicle, I broke free and commenced a journey seeking out Ruby knowledge. Alas, I was the sole Ruby developer in a very small town. Armed with a laptop and microphone, my quest took led me on a journey through the interwebs of pair programming and google plus hangouts. Come along as our my story unfolds. Along the way, we'll go over the dark secrets of navigating the windows and panes of the mystical TMUX and Vim. We'll discuss the anti patterns to avoid and the patterns to follow that can ensure success. We'll discuss tricks and techniques both novices and intermediate pair programming teams will benefit from.